The chief use of the ram's horn was as a vessel in which to carry liquids, especially those which, like oil, were poured out in small quantities. For this purpose a wooden plug was driven tightly into the larger end, so as to close it completely, and frequently covered, in addition, with raw hide, in order to hold it firmly in its place, while the small part of the pointed end was cut off, and the aperture closed with a small stopper. The old powder-horns which were formerly much used in England, and which even now are employed in Palestine and many other countries, were good examples of this form of vessel. That the horn was the favourite vessel for carrying oil is seen in many passages of the Scriptures. For example, when Saul was to be superseded by David, Samuel was ordered to fill his horn with oil and go to Jesse's house, 1 Sam. i. 39. The allusion was evidently to a vessel whose ordinary use was the holding of oil. Again, when David named Solomon his son (see 1 Kings i. 39), "Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the Tabernacle, and anointed Solomon," the oil being that which was kept in the Tabernacle for sacred purposes, and the ingredients of which were so carefully chosen, for it was to be an "oil of holy ointment, an ointment compounded after the art of the apothecary (or perfumer), which shall be an holy anointing oil" (Ex. xxx. 25). The horn of the ram had also a national value, as from it were made the sacred trumpets which played so important a part in the history of the Jewish nation. There is no doubt that the primitive trumpets were originally formed either from the horn of an animal, such as the ox, the large-horned antelopes, the sheep, and the goat, and that in process of time they were made of metal, generally copper or silver. References are frequently made in the Bible to these trumpets, for which there were different names, probably on account of their different forms. These names are, however, very loosely rendered in our version, the same word being sometimes translated the "cornet" and sometimes the "trumpet." Putting aside, however, these points of difference, we have chiefly to remark the fact that trumpets made of rams' horns were ordered by the Mosaic law to be sounded at certain times, and that their notes formed an important part of the ritual. Each jubilee year, for example, was ushered in by the blasts of the sacred trumpets. "Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land" (Lev. xxv. 9). Then there was the festival known as the Feast of Trumpets. "In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you" (Numb. xxix. 1).